Tales Of An Expectant Dad: Week 21

On November 5th 2012, my wife gave birth to our first child. During the pregnancy I decided that I would write about the experience. Every week since I have documented all of the events that took place throughout this time, along with my thoughts on them. Now that I can confirm that our baby is happy and healthy, I will share those thoughts with you.

Week 21 – Sympathy fat

Obviously at this point in the game the eating has picked up for Jess. She’s eating more often, and she’s eating in bigger portions as well. The big difference now is that more often than not she finishes her food. This is a big change for me. I’m used to finishing her meals as a part of my dinner. Sometimes just taking the place of my entire dinner. That isn’t the case so much anymore. Now I need to make sure I have food for myself. This is where I first started to experience an ugly truth. All the rumors about sympathy fat is very real.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Jess’ cravings. Fast food, sweets, cakes, whatever. What I haven’t mentioned is that when she is eating all of these crazy things, I am also eating them at the same time. It is unbelievably easy to fall into this trap. Jess makes a request for food that she wants me to pick up or make, and it’s almost impossible for me to resist just eating the same thing instead of having something better or healthier for myself. This turns into a pretty bad string of eating. McDonalds, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, White Castle, chicken parm, frozen pizza. All tasty, but all not good if you have them in consecutive days over a two or three week period.

The key to all this is that I see what Jess is ordering and by habit I have as much or more of the same thing. I know she can’t out eat me, so whatever she has won’t be enough for me, which means I need to have more for myself. It took a while for me to see the impact of this, but when I did it was pretty clear. All I had to do was look at the scale. Over the last four months I have gained ten pounds. This is almost as much as Jessica has gained, and she has another person growing inside of her.

The only advice I can give is to be aware that only one of you needs to eat like a pregnant person. Jessica, like most expectant mothers, is not going to give a rats ass what people around her are eating. I can have twice the amount she is having, or half the amount, or have something different all together. The only way to really avoid gaining the sympathy weight is to nut up and prepare your own damn dinner.